Hi, I am a 20-something year old, college student, who wants to make a change in my life. All of my life I have been overweight, and before I graduate college, I would like to lose roughly 100 pounds. I started college at 250 lbs and lost 30 during my first year. Unfortunately, I have gained all of that back. Now I would like to lose more weight (down to what is considered healthy for me) and work to keep it off for good. (Written May 2012)

As of the start of 2013, I ...

Hi, I am a 20-something year old, college student, who wants to make a change in my life. All of my life I have been overweight, and before I graduate college, I would like to lose roughly 100 pounds. I started college at 250 lbs and lost 30 during my first year. Unfortunately, I have gained all of that back. Now I would like to lose more weight (down to what is considered healthy for me) and work to keep it off for good. (Written May 2012)

As of the start of 2013, I have lost the 30 pounds again and am fighting to enter uncharted territory in my adult weight (below 220). I have also signed up to run a half marathon in May.

In May 2013, I celebrated one year on SparkPeople, graduated from college, and ran a half marathon. In all, I had lost about 45 pounds. Then, I started to prepare for some life changes including moving home for the summer and preparing to move to Venezuela at the end of July.

During the summer of 2013, I had a difficult time living at home and maintaining my weight loss. Actually, I gained back all that I worked to lose that spring and my exercise habits became almost nonexistent. Then, I moved to Venezuela, and quickly lost that 20 pounds in a little over a month. On September 7, 2013, I celebrated seeing ONEderland for the first time, which also marked 50 pounds lost and half way there! On October 13, I saw the 180s for the first time, which also meant my BMI was considered overweight instead of obese. Then I went to an all-inclusive resort and gained 7 pounds in that week. Vacations are a weakness of mine and I need to be more careful. After a month of being back to my regular routine, I was back at 189 on November 10.

In the time before Christmas, my weight stayed between 189 and 185. Then, I went home for Christmas, and as vacations are my weakness, I gained enough weight that I actually saw the 200s again.

Entering 2014, I was determined to get back to the upper 180s and break that plateau. I picked up exercising more and began running on a consistent basis again. By February, I was in the upper 180s, and my weight was going down very slowly until I was at 185 at the end of March. I saw my inches quickly dropping during some of this time. During the first week of April, I got sick and my weight quickly dropped to 180, which was a total of 70 pounds lost! Then, the stress of the end of the school year started in May, and my habits of healthy eating and exercise quickly dissolved. My weight and inches started creeping up, and my health began deteriorating.

My goal for summer 2014 was to maintain, and I failed miserably. Going back to my parents' house is always a struggle for me as well as vacations. The double whammy of this over the summer plus losing my habits in May lead to a 30 pound weight gain by August (to 210). The new clothes that I bought for my thinner body that summer no longer fit as I began to teach again.

In September 2014, I realized that just being in Venezuela living my life again was not enough to really change my health back to how it was that spring. I was able to get close to 200, but not below, which was frustrating. It was time to put my healthy habits back in place. Now, that is what I am working on. Guess what? As soon as I started exercising and being more intentional, my weight and inches did start changing! Here we go: back to the hard work!

March 23:? April 2: 210.4 April 8: 211.2 April 13: 206.6 April 20: 207 (not fair I was 205 all week) April 27: 207.8 May 6: 206.6 May 20: 210.6 May 25: 206.8 June 1: 207.0 July 28: 220 August 24: 204 September 1: 202 September 7: 199.8 September 28: 196.0 October 13: 189.6 October 19: 196.4 (spent the week at an all-inclusive resort) November 2: 192.2 November 9: 191.8 November 16: 186 November 21: 189.4 November 30: 189 December 7: 187.2 December 14: 187.6 January 5, 2014: 200 January 11: 193.4 January 18: 193.2 January 25: 192.4 February 1: 191.4 February 9: 189 February 15: 189.4 February 22: 190.4 March 3: 189.4 March 8: 188.4 March 16: 186.2 March 22: 186.6 March 29: 185.4 April 5: 179.8 (sick) April 12: 181.8 The next few months and summer were rough. I was conscious of what was happening b

Personal Information:
My username and picture is from the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Stargirl is a girl who is bold by just being herself until she is eventually influenced by a few people around her to be who she is not. She then has to find her way back to being herself. I also am on this path to finding who I am and what I am doing with my life.

Unfortunately, I stopped tracking and working on changing my lifestyle while at home during the summer, but I knew I needed to keep going. I also got a digital scale with resolve to pick up where I had started when I left to go back to school.

August 19: 240.4 August 25: 237.2 September 2: 238.0 September 8: 234.8 September 15: 233.6 September 23: 234.6 September 30: 233.8 October 6: 231.4 October 13: 230.0 October 20: 230.6 October 27: 231.6 November 3: 229.2 November 10: 225.2 November 17: 224.2 December 1: 224.0 December 8: 220.2 January 5, 2013: 226 January 12: 222.0 January 19: 222.8 January 26: 219.8 February 2: 217.8 February 9: 216.0 February 16: ? February 23: 214.2 March 2: 211.2 March 9: 209.8 March 17: 210.4 Continued Above

Thank you so much for stopping by my page and leaving such nice comments! I appreciate it very much! I am looking forward to my next half and am always trying to fuel properly lol. Any bits of advice are always welcome! Thanks again!